Firecracker lands man in hospital

A MAN nearly died on Christmas Eve when he was attacked by his neighbors in Mandaluyong City after he scolded one of them for lighting a firecracker.

Paul Christian Velardo remains confined at Mandaluyong City Medical Center for the injuries he sustained on the head, arm and shoulders when siblings Norberto and Danilo Orcajada, Ino Talde and two unidentified men went after him with a knife and bolo around 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Mandaluyong police chief Senior Supt. Tyrone Masigon said that Velardo had confronted Norberto when the latter set off a firecracker outside his house at Block 9, Welfareville Compound in Barangay Addition Hills.

Instead of apologizing, the 45-year-old suspect argued with the victim, which prompted the other suspects to gang up on Velardo.

The suspects managed to escape while the victim was brought by his relatives to the hospital. Masigon said that they had deployed a tracker team to determine the whereabouts of the men who attacked Velardo. Jovic Yee